Octavius von Ulm

Octavius von Ulm (1610-1676) was a German mercenary leader from Ulm, Bavaria. He was a Landsknecht (Great Sword-wielding mercenary), and marketed his services to mainly the Catholic side of the Thirty Years War. Afterwards, he fought in the employ of various nations and died in the 1676 Battle of Oland while fighting for the Dutch.

Biography
Octavius von Ulm was born in the town of Ulm in Bavaria, and as a young man he sold his services as a swordsman. In 1618, at the age of eight, he enlisted his services as a soldier for the Rhine Palatinate during the opening stages of the Thirty Years War, and in 1621 he fought the Battle of White Mountain near Prague. After the battle he switched to the Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria's Holy Roman Army, and made his name in the fight against Denmark under Albrecht Wallenstein in the late 1620s.

Ulm fought in all of the major battles in Germany in the 1630s, including the First Battle of Breitenfeld, the Battle of Lutzen, First Battle of Nordlingen, and the other fights. His contract allowed him to loot whatever prizes he could find, and he sold arms to the people of the Catholic League cities for money. He was eventually dismissed in 1642 after the Second Battle of Breitenfeld due to his disobedience and obsession with looting, but after the Battle of Jankov in 1645, Count Giuliamo Pietroni hired him again.

His skills were again tested in the Battle of Regensburg-am-Rhine in October 1645, during which his mercenaries fought bravely. However, Pietroni was shot and most of the mercenaries in the army fled, and Ulm was dismissed to recoup costs for the Empire. Ulm was without a job for a while, but was employed by Habsburg Spain in 1650 during the Franco-Spanish War. He was captured at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658 and his ransom was not paid, so he instead fought for France. After the war's end a year later, Ulm headed to Portugal to fight for them during their war of independence, and in 1669 he left after the war's end. By then, his company had expanded to over 5,000 loyal Landsknecht troops, but now included rifle-wielding Jagers to cope with the modernization of Europe's armies.

In 1672, Ulm gained a contract from the United Provinces, and fought in the Franco-Dutch War against France, his former employers and enemies. As a Dutch general, he stopped King Louis XIV of France's invasion, and died in 1676 at the Battle of Oland against Sweden, shot in the head.